Moms on Mushrooms Group Banned From Instagram

Tracey Tee, founder of Denver-based Moms on Mushrooms (M.O.M.), opened the organization's Instagram account a week ago to find a damning message from the social media company: M.O.M.'s account was removed after its psychedelic education content was flagged for violating community guidelines.

It was the second time M.O.M.'s account, which Tee says hovered above 35,000 followers, was removed by Instagram; the first time was last October.

"They obviously don't want people selling drugs online — and I see really shady accounts selling psychedelics and ads promoting microdoses, and I find that very dangerous and I don't want that on social media. It puts all of us who are advocates on educational platforms at a really high risk of not being able to continue our work."

According to Tee, M.O.M. focuses exclusively on moms who may benefit from microdosing psilocybin and want more education, with mothers in distress or who might be using antidepressants the group's target audience.

"They don't feel like [the antidepressants] are working. They don't remember the last time they laughed, they don't remember the last time they cried, and they're looking for a new way," she says. "I want to educate them and let them know that there's options out there that might be supportive."

Tee says she appealed the removal of M.O.M.'s Instagram account as soon as it happened, but hasn't heard anything back from the social media giant in the last seven days.

The ban is a blow to the organization, according to Tee, who believes Instagram is the best platform for reaching people. Though M.O.M. has a membership for $2 per month on Circle for more community networking, Instagram was M.O.M.'s primary method of engagement.

Tee has no idea if Instagram will reinstate M.O.M.'s account — in fact, psychedelic-related accounts are banned so often that Double Blind, a leading psychedelics magazine, published a "Guide to Instagram Censorship on Psychedelics" two years ago. But after two bans, she knows she can't depend on Instagram.

So last Thursday, M.O.M. pivoted to YouTube, where Tee intends to focus her psilocybin educational efforts. But with under one hundred YouTube followers compared to M.O.M.'s 35,000-plus, the pivot will be an uphill climb.

"I understand we have a long road ahead," Tee says. "From a business standpoint, as a third-generation entrepreneur, I'm frustrated and horrified, but then the Aries in me is sort of delighted by the challenge of, simply: How do we market to people in 2025? It's so hard to disseminate information, to let people know what you're doing in a way that's not spammy, that is authentic, and that isn't overwhelming when you're getting bombarded from every other direction as well."

Instagram's terms of use include a vague rule stating "You can't do anything unlawful, misleading, or fraudulent or for an illegal or unauthorized purpose," leaving room for interpretation. Tee has heard of workarounds others use in the psychedelic space, like intentional misspellings (which Double Blind endorses to escape Instagram censorship), but says she won't paper over M.O.M.'s intent.

"A lot of my colleagues, they don't spell out 'microdosing,' or spell out the whole 'psychedelic'," she says. "I think if you're going to write and have free speech, then I'm going to spell the words correctly. I'm going to say the words because I'm not ashamed of them."